The work areas of food service, storage or processing facilities present difficult cleaning problems, since surfaces such as floors, counters, steps and the like rapidly become fouled with greasy or oily soils. These soils can create both health and safety hazards in areas in which large amounts of cooking oil, lard, butter, fish oil, tallow, and the like are employed. To facilitate cleaning, the floors of restaurant and institutional kitchens, canning factories, dairy and meat processing plants and the like are commonly formed from hard, non-porous materials such as glazed tile, plastics and stainless steel which are cleaned by the application of aqueous detergent systems. However, such cleaning compositions often must be diluted or solubilized prior to use and present additional problems in application and clean-up in areas which contain equipment or other materials which are not water-resistant.
Commonly-assigned application Ser. No. 511,185, filed July 6, 1983, is directed to a cleaning composition formed by shredding a friable, hydrophilic, open-celled, solids-loaded polyurethane foam. These shreds are useful to absorb liquid oil spills from porous surfaces such as concrete, brick and the like. However, a need exists for a floor cleaning composition which will clean food processing work areas fouled with residues of greasy and/or oily soil which may be primarily solid, waxy or pastey in nature.